Audubon, Three Bays must consider alternatives in Cotuit

Thursday

Oct 12, 2017 at 3:00 AMOct 12, 2017 at 6:26 AM

By Warren Wheelwright

Sampsons Island in Cotuit, long favored as a great recreational destination by Cape residents along Nantucket Sound, is in danger of being cut back by 400 feet. The stated goal of Mass. Audubon and Three Bays Preservation is to obtain sand for rebuilding Dead Neck. But after nearly five years of review, the project is moving slowly through permitting because of many adverse impacts:

- The destruction of more than four acres of designated high-priority habitat for endangered species, which means the destruction of nearly six nest sites for piping plovers and 30 for least terns. This would be a serious net loss, as the artificial sand habitat created repeatedly on Dead Neck has proven to fail in as little as two years and become a deadly “killing field” for the piping plover chicks.

- This excavation represents more than 800 feet of the most valuable section of Sampson’s Island for recreation. It provides the protected area for dropping anchor to rest and swim off one’s boat; it provides a great beach area for pulling ashore and enjoying the sun and scene.

-- Dredging of more than six acres of dune, beach and land under ocean will create significant silt pollution and turbidity of Cotuit and Osterville waters, as the marine fisheries experts and shellfishermen know. The nearby eel-grass beds, shellfish grants, and general water quality will be adversely affected.

Audubon and Three Bays have failed to take these high recreational and resource values and environmental impacts into account. They have failed to even look for other sources of sand, a fact that has been glossed over by regulators because the applicants are Audubon and Three Bays.

Audubon and Three Bays have misled residents by claiming that widening the Cotuit entrance will improve water quality, an unsubstantiated claim rejected by the Conservation Commission. What the applicants have not considered is the more likely benefit of flushing by dredging the outer Cotuit channel through the ebb tide shoal to obtain the amount of sand required to repair Dead Neck and also address Cotuit’s navigational needs. A win-win solution.

Regulators seem to wear rose-colored glasses in their review of this project, apparently assuming that it must be OK because Audubon is one of the applicants. This despite missing data, out-dated maps, and applicants' failure to even tell the regulators about the multiple conservation restrictions protecting the island sanctuary. It is shocking that Audubon would support this destruction of priority bird nesting and feeding habitat, which it had previously opposed.

What’s more, Mass. Audubon has failed to accurately identify the “stinky” peaty deposit illicitly placed on their Sampson’s Island during a prior dredge project – a stench we have all endured for summers since 2010. Further, no effort has been made for proper disposal of this deposit except to ask the state Department of Environmental Protection to allow the use of Loop Beach for transfer by heavy equipment over the beach, dewatering on the parking lot into the drains, and trucking away. Not environmentally sound in our estimation. Further, it is not clear to us that the local authorities are even aware or approved the use of Cotuit’s public beach.

Regulators and neighbors alike could learn the hard way that allowing the flaws of a project to hide behind an environmental giant “stinks.” Regulators should do the right thing and make the applicants redesign their project -- to dredge the outer Cotuit channel and use that sand to build up Dead Neck -- while saving Sampsons Island. With that clear purpose, for the above stated reasons, we have been granted status to appeal the permits by the MassDEP and are requesting such of the Army Corps.

— Warren Wheelwright of Cotuit is spokesman for the Barnstable Citizens Group. This was also signed by nine other citizens.

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